This invention relates to a so called musical accompaniment playing information memory medium, an image information memory medium and a musical accompaniment playing apparatus or "KARAOKE" apparatus, and more particularly to a musical accompaniment playing information memory medium, and a musical accompaniment playing apparatus using a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard.
Hitherto, as the musical accompaniment playing apparatus, there are known the playing apparatus in the form of a laser video disk and the playing apparatus in the form of a compact disk.
The apparatus for reproducing musical accompaniment information in the form of a laser video disk (LVD) comprises a LVD automatic changer for accommodating therein a plurality of laser video disks serving as the musical accompaniment information recording medium and reproducing them, a commander for controlling the LVD automatic changer to allow it to select a desired laser video disk in the LVD automatic changer by a request inputted from a control unit, an amplifier and a speaker for outputting a reproduced audio signal as a sound, an image display unit for displaying a reproduced image signal as an image, and a microphone for changing a voice sung to an audio signal to output it to the amplifier. The amplifier mixes the audio signal from the LVD automatic changer and the audio signal of the voice sung from the microphone to output a mixed signal to the speaker.
On the other hand, the apparatus for reproducing musical accompaniment information in the form of a compact disk (CD) comprises a CD automatic changer for accommodating therein a plurality of CDs and reproducing them, a commander for controlling the CD automatic changer to allow it to select a desired CD in the CD automatic changer by a request inputted form a control unit, an amplifier and a speaker for outputting a reproduced audio signal as a sound, a graphic decoder for converting graphic data reproduced from subcode data in the CD to an image signal, a graphic display unit for displaying the image signal as an image, and a microphone for changing a voice sung to an audio signal to output it to the amplifier. The amplifier mixes the audio signal from the CD automatic changer and the audio signal of the voice sung from the microphone to output a mixed signal to the speaker.
By constituting the musical accompaniment playing apparatus in this way, a singer can sing a song with a musical accompaniment, and can enjoy, at the same time, a corresponding image.
However, in the musical accompaniment playing information memory media and musical accompaniment playing apparatuses in the conventional forms, in the case of the laser video disk, since the same image is displayed with respect to one music, if that music is a hit song, it is played many times a day, thereby eventually lacking in freshness. In the case of an image by the subcode graphic of the compact disk, there is similar drawback. In this case, since such an image is not a real image, a musical accompaniment playing is further wearisome. Further, there is also known a form in which the compact disk and the laser video disk are combined to give an ability of selecting, every genre, a desired image as an image from the laser video disk thus to reproduce a moving picture. Even in this case, however, since selection of images is made from images of about 20 to 30 musics recorded or collected in the laser video disk, there is the possibility that the same image may be displayed for different musics. As a result, there is a limit in freshness. On the other hand, there is also known a form in which several kinds of still pictures are reproduced for one music. However, such a still picture displaying is visually inferior to the moving picture displaying.